After Monday's rainout the racing surface at the East Bay Raceway near Gibsonton, Florida, was even more unpredictable than usual Tuesday night and that, along with the new tire rule this year for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series, left drivers slipping and sliding around the 3/8th-mile oval come feature time.
Front row starters Billy Moyer and Dennis Erb Jr. swapped the lead back and forth three times as four cautions waved in the first ten laps, but once back to green it was Erb who would control the remainder of the 25-lap distance to score the $5,000 victory in a non-point paying event. Earl Pearson Jr. continued his resurgence with his reunited Dunn Benson Ford team by finishing second ahead of Moyer. Bobby Pierce came from an eighth row starting spot to finish fourth and Brandon Sheppard locked down the fifth position at the checkers.
The rain of Monday left standing water and a tall berm of graded clay on the inside of turns three and four and with the preferred groove on that end being right around the bottom one slight miscalculation would catch the nose of a car and send it into a snap spin. That is what happened to Pierce in his heat race causing him to start so deep in the feature lineup and it kept Stormy Scott from posting another impressive top five finish when he caught the berm in turn three with nine laps remaining in the feature.
Gone are the days of car counts in the 60's and 70's at East Bay's Winternationals, although the quality of Tuesday's 42-car field was nothing to scoff at.
Late Model action continues through Saturday at East Bay including a makeup of Monday's rainout with qualifying on Thursday and the racing on Friday.
The UMP Modifieds kicked off two weeks of action at the Volusia County Speedway just west of Daytona Tuesday night with 51 cars in attendance. The feature finish was littered with names that you will also find racing at, or hanging around the superspeedway over the next two weeks headed up by feature winner Austin Dillon. Nick Hoffman was a close second followed by Ty Dillon, Jake Hawkins and Kenny Wallace. Ray Bollinger of Kewanee, Illinois, finished seventh, Ken Schrader was 13th and Justin Allgaier was involved in an early race accident leaving him in 23rd at the pay window. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton came up one spot short of qualifying for the main event finishing third in his B-Main.
Young Dugan Thye of Burlington, Iowa, has made the trip south with his Modified and he finished seventh in his ten car heat and eighth of twelve in the second B-Main. Dugan competes in the IMCA Modified division regularly at both the Lee County Speedway and at 34 Raceway and he is the son of former NKF Tour Modified champion Darin Thye. No doubt that he is taking on some of the best at Volusia and the experience will give him a head start on the local season, hopefully Dugan can make a show or two this week at Volusia.
The All Star Circuit of Champion Sprint Cars join the UMP Modifieds tonight at Volusia.
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